Syntax

Property values

Default. Lines of text break automatically. Content wraps to the next line if it exceeds the width of the object.

nowrap (nowrap)

Line breaks are suppressed. Content does not wrap to the next line.

pre (pre)

Line breaks and other whitespace are preserved. This possible value is supported in Internet Explorer 6 and later when the !DOCTYPE declaration specifies standards-compliant mode. When the !DOCTYPE declaration does not specify standards-compliant mode, you can retrieve this value, but it does not affect rendering—it functions like the normal value.

pre (pre)

Line breaks and other whitespace are preserved. When the !DOCTYPE declaration does not specify standards-compliant mode, you can retrieve this value, but it does not affect rendering—it functions like the normal value.

pre-line (pre-line)

Sequences of line breaks are preserved.

pre-line (pre-line)

Sequences of line breaks are preserved.

pre-wrap (pre-wrap)

Sequences of line breaks are collapsed.

pre-wrap (pre-wrap)

Sequences of line breaks are collapsed.

String format

normal | pre | nowrap | pre-wrap | pre-line

normal | pre | nowrap | pre-wrap | pre-line

CSS information

Applies To

All elements

Media

visual

Inherited

1

Initial Value

normal

Remarks

Whitespace, such as line breaks, spaces, and tabs, is collapsed by default in HTML documents. You can use the nonbreaking space entity(&nbsp;) to add extra spaces to an object when the IHTMLRuleStyle::whiteSpace property is set to normal or nowrap. You can add extra line breaks using the br element.

This property affects content you access through the Document Object Model (DOM) the same way it affects the way Windows Internet Explorer displays the content.

Still in Internet Explorer 6, this property applies to the currentStyle element. The pre value of this property is now supported.

Windows Internet Explorer 8. The pre-line and pre-wrap values are used to control sequences of whitespace. A value of pre-line instructs Windows Internet Explorer to combine multiple line breaks into a single line, whereas pre-wrap wraps each newline onto a separate line. Inside a pre block, lines breaks occur at newlines in the source, at occurrences of "\A" in generated content (::before and ::after), and as necessary to fill line boxes.

Examples

The example below shows five identical paragraphs of text with extra spacing and line breaks throughout the paragraphs. Each paragraph shows a value for the IHTMLRuleStyle::whiteSpace property and how it affects the white space in the paragraph.

In the image below, you can see how the different values for IHTMLRuleStyle::whiteSpace affect the white space within the paragraphs.

The following example shows how to set and retrieve the value of the IHTMLRuleStyle::whiteSpace property. When the user sets the value of the IHTMLRuleStyle::whiteSpace property of a div element, the value of the property is retrieved in a span element.